from the beginning to the end
by AlternateDarkness
Summary: They never realized they were falling until it was too late to get back up. Contestshipping. One-shot, shortfic.


Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. This story takes contexts from AG033 (Now That's Flower Power), AG123 (Rhapsody in Drew), AG162 (Spontaneous Combusken), and AG187 (The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing).

* * *

_It's scary, at first._

_I._

They're in the river, and it's cold, and wet, and hard to move, and the current seems to be growing swifter by the second. _A waterfall,_ they both realize, and suddenly there's nothing beneath them and they're dropping through the air, holding hands all the way down.

_Because there's nothing other than each other to tether themselves to._

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

She holds on to him, pushing at the water, trying to keep him from drifting away. He's unconscious, and she's almost run out of energy. She's worrying about him, now, worrying if he's going to catch a cold or if they're going to be separated or if he's going to drown if she lets go of him. Somehow, she can't bear the idea of losing him, not like this, even though they're rivals and they fight and are supposed to hate each other. _He's a part of my life now, _she realizes.

_He can't just leave me anymore, and I can't just leave him._

* * *

_II._

Somehow, his parting words are able set her heart aflutter, and she has to wonder.

When Ash interrupts her thoughts with ice cream, she gets annoyed. When her mom teases her, she freaks out.

But she knows that, however much she may deny it, she might just feel something for him.

_And both of them decide, for a moment, at least, that they want to cry, due to reasons neither of them understand._

* * *

_III._

She decides to let Brianna meet him because she's a nice person and Brianna idols him. They find him by the pool, shirtless and relaxing, and she calls his name. She then jogs over to him, and she has to make sure her eyes don't rove over his body because that is out of the question _(he's your rival, for heaven's sake)_. So she turns her head away from him, towards Brianna, and starts introducing the girl.

As she gets him to shake Brianna's hand, she wonders why he couldn't have been this civil to her. A thought strikes her, then, and when she realizes that he's probably never done this kind of stuff, she isn't able to stop herself from teasing him.

_His flaws have been found, and she rejoices._

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

She and Brianna are at the beach when he, Ash, Brock, and Max walk over to them. She asks him what he thought of her performance, and when he doesn't complement her, _(even though she knows what he said was the truth,) _she can't help but feel annoyed. However, he tells Brianna that she did a good job, that Vibrava takes some training to evolve, that Flygon's worth the effort. And Brianna faints, leaving her to catch the girl. She's kind of hurting inside now, until he somehow patches everything up with only a few words, and she finds that she doesn't mind all too much when he returns to being cocky. He then turns and leaves, and though he wishes that he could have been brave enough to say something else, he keeps his face straight.

_She keeps him disconcerted, and although he knows he needs it, he hates it sometimes._

* * *

_IV._

When he shows up, she can't believe her eyes.

When he battles her, she can't believe how badly she loses.

When he stays to talk with her, even after she's woken up from her depressed state, she can't believe that he's actually here.

_It's all in stone now._

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

They go out to the edge of the cliff, and he goes to lean against the wooden railing right when they get there. She climbs over the barrier and sits down on the other side of it, leaning backwards and enjoying the firmness of the wood against her back. She eventually stands up to face him, and asks him where he's going to go next. After he replies, there's a momentary silence, and she makes a decision to tell him something she's been thinking for a while. Right before she can open her mouth, however, Harley chooses pop up out of nowhere and ruin the sentimental atmosphere. The man then runs off not long after Cacturne sends Team Rocket into the sky, and he also takes this moment to leave. She waves goodbye, and when she shouts to him, everything other than _I think I like you_ comes out of her mouth.

_Oddly enough, no tears want to come this time. Even the disappointment lasts for only a moment. Hope, however, makes an unexpected arrival._

* * *

_V._

When they finally meet in Johto, she can't stop herself from hugging him, and he can't stop himself from grinning way too widely.

_Because even though they've hit bottom, they haven't lost each other._


End file.
